run to seed

Idioms  

1. Also, go to seed. Become devitalized or worn out; deteriorate, as in I went back to visit my old elementary school, and sadly, it has really run to seed, or The gold medalist quickly went to seed after he left competition. This term alludes to plants that, when allowed to set seed after flowering, either taste bitter, as in the case of lettuce, or do not send out new buds, as is true of annual flowers. Its figurative use dates from the first half of the 1800s.

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

run to seed

Catherine, meanwhile, had run to seed and spent as much time as possible lying in bed eating sweets.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 1, 2026

They run to seed in empire, and so fructify into kingdoms—the staple form of nations.

From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 62, Number 385. November, 1847. by Various

If they are disposed to run to seed too early, it may be prevented by pulling up, and setting out again in the shade.

From Soil Culture by J. H. Walden

It's sentiment run to seed, and sentiment of the most maudlin kind, at that.

From Delilah of the Snows by Harold Bindloss

It was covered with high, coarse, prairie grass, and its occasional nodding clusters of prairie flowers run to seed.

From Scenes and Andventures in the Semi-Alpine Region of the Ozark Mountains of Missouri and Arkansas by Henry Rowe Schoolcraft

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